Customer comments on this selection.
 Good Overview of Project Management
This book offers a good overview of all the key processes in project management. It is clear and easy to understand. Case studies are included so you can see how the concepts are applied. I don't think the "24 hours" is a gimmick. You can read each chapter in about an hour. However, it would take a little longer if you worked out the exercises for the case study.
 Lists and Definitions Only
In the project management field, projects by definition are unique and variable, and must be taken on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, beware of books that try to quantify and standardize methods in a field that is vastly fluid and varied by nature. In order to make any sense, such books must remain at a very high level to avoid alienating project managers with especially unique needs, but this very same high level of coverage usually results in terms and recommendations that are so vague as to lose their effectiveness. That goes double for this book. First of all, the "24 Hours" promise of the title is nothing but a gimmick from the Dummies school of bookstore education, and no professional would take such a thing seriously. Based on the nature of your real world experiences and requirements, 24 days, 24 weeks, or even 24 months are more realistic in learning project management.
The "24 hours" gimmick could possibly be ignored except for the fact that this book is constructed as if such a thing really were possible, with the multitudinous characteristics of project management chopped up awkwardly and arbitrarily into 24 segments, which consist of little more than repetitive lists and definitions. The deepest this book gets into the real nitty-gritty of project management is the calculation of basic budgetary percentages and figuring out how many people to invite to a meeting, in the guise of hypothetical "projects" that are hard to take seriously - organizing a banquet and restoring an old building. Missing altogether is the fundamental challenge of project management - dealing with variety while knowing how to deeply analyze the common themes and knowledge of the discipline. Not recommended. [~doomsdayer520~]
 Well written and complete
Nice book. Does the job of many other books. Good work.
Project Management by Nancy Mingus
This is a well written, very thorough book on an important topic. Project management can be dry (as my students will attest), but the clear writing, numerous examples, various kinds of sidebars, and case studies, make it interesting. The sidebars include FYI's, "Just a minute" advice, cautions, time savers, and "go to" cross references. The book is well organized, carefully covering the basics then moving through starting a project, developing, executing, controlling, and closing it out. It includes chapters on project management software, and she even includes a section on celebrating the end of a project with pizza and wings. Talk about being thorough!
The book was written primarily for self-education (the title is "Teach Yourself" ...), but it would serve equally well as the textbook in a project management course, or as a supplement in a systems analysis course.
Personally, I do not care for the "24 hour" idea, with the topics indicated by Hour 1, Hour 2, etc., but that artifact can be ignored.
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